Summary
I chose to review the book, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg (Duhigg, 2012). The author uses the example of a young woman who participates in laboratory experiments and procedures. She manages to transform her life in every aspect through her daily routine chores (Duhigg, 2012). The new attributes and character result in her promotion.
Thus, the illustration shows that the change of habits is essential in achieving certain goals in life. Studies on the change of behavior and character are common, but they fail in most institutions. The only external forces for change of habit are life coaches, tutors, and counselors. However, these people should not force persons to adopt attributes but should create enthusiasm that will result in the growth of good attributes in individuals.
Different patterns of marketing are used, and they vary among individuals. In addition, the patterns of marketing vary between products or services in a competitive market. During further gives examples of different business sectors in their ways of increasing profit in the market. For example, marketers of Procter & Gamble use various patterns of marketing to outdo their competitors in winning investors and gaining competitive advantage.
Another example is the CEO who uses a strategy of ensuring cooperation among employees before targeting the external market. This is an important strategic management approach that aims at ensuring that workers are united toward achieving common goals of an organization.
The book has numerous examples of change of habit, which results in the success of businesses and personal lives. The methods of changing habits and attributes have scientific support that makes them relevant in most life situations. The book gives an explanation of the existence of habits and ways of changing habits in order to achieve success.
Concrete Response
During divides the book into three major chapters. The chapters complement each other. The prologue states that habit cures, the laboratory scientist manages to quit smoking and heavy drinking. The changes helped the scientist to a job promotion. Neurologists, sociologists, psychologists, and geneticists give scientific evidence on the reasons for the development of the destructive habit, but give little remedies for reducing such detrimental habits (Dewey, 2012).
Duhigg’s book is gaining popularity because it answers difficult questions from scientific research and results. The information in the book is long-lived and is essential in all types of environments. Many people are using Duhigg’s book as a life coach on a change of habits in order to have successful families. The changes that take place in personal life may have a major effect on career choices and prosperity.
Making plans in life about changing character and habits results from previous detrimental experience and vision of possessing a successful life. The changes in life have a neural pattern that helps in overriding the old pattern of habits. Habit change is progressive and requires time and constant monitoring. Evaluation sessions are essential in order to ensure the process in the affirmative direction toward habit change.
Qualman (2012) argues that the companies are undergoing a transformation through setting programmed patterns that every member in the company follows in order to ensure success in the habit change process.
The process of transforming habits requires an understanding of the real benefits of a change of habits and the process of changing the habits. Duhigg (2012) explains how habits work and ways of breaking the detrimental habit loop. The author asserts that habits never disappear from an individual but receive suppression or proliferation.
Reflection
The author challenges his audience to change bad habits. For example, an individual may want to consume fast food on a daily basis. According to nutritionists, fast food has high calories and may result in an increase in weight. An individual with a habit of consuming fast food may want to change the behavior. The change in eating habit could be facilitated by a nutritionist.
Duhigg (2012) explains how habits work in the first part of his book. Every habit functions the same way. There is a cue that triggers the behavior change automatically. Studies reveal that the cue of behavior is through a routine that gets motivated or discouraged through a reward. The routine can be location, time of the day, personal state, other people, or pattern of behavior that triggers a routine (Dewey, 2012).
The routine behavior causes the element of craving, and an individual may need to identify the main cause of craving. According to Qualman (2012), the craving aspect results in a routine due to the consistency of repeating similar activities in a definite time and place. It is important to change the routine aspect of conducting activities in order to avoid detrimental behaviors. The necessary part of the ways habit work is the reward. Getting out of the reward is tricky and requires an intrinsic decision with the help of tutors.
Duhigg (2012) encourages his audience to test different hypotheses about ways of changing behavior. The author does not offer a definite procedure of changing behavior because it does not exist. However, the author encourages the audience to work closely with the psychologists, sociologists, and geneticists in order to have the best outcomes with regard to the change of bad habits. The results could be better because the graving aspect may have a motivational factor of external forces (Qualman, 2012).
Conclusion
The book provides helpful information about the change of behavior in order to achieve success. The book also explains that a new behavior may become a habit after adopting it successfully. Studies from the book show that individuals who have the ability to diagnose their habits also have the capability of changing them in any form of choice.
New habits emerge through the creation and acceptance of change in new behaviors. The transformation of the new behaviors occurs through similar cues and rewards. A reward will help in triggering the brain in remembering the loop of behavior in the future. The book provides essential lesions with regard to the change inhabits.
References
Dewey, J. (2012). How we think. Mineola, NY: Courier Dover Publications.
Duhigg, C. (2012). The power of habit: why we do what we do in life and business. New York, NY: Random House LLC.
Qualman, E. (2012). Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.